Office of Research and Project Administration

This notice pertains to applications submitted to the National Science Foundation beginning in January 2009.  NSF has recently released a new version of their Proposal and Award Policies & Procedure Guide.

The most significant change is that NSF has revised its long standing salary policy of not funding academic year salary. NSF’s revised compensation policy provides “no more than two months of [senior project personnel] regular salary in any one year.This limit includes salary compensation received from all NSF-funded grants." The prior funding limitation to 2 months summer salary has been eliminated. If more than two months of support should be needed, NSF requires that “any compensation … in excess of two months must be disclosed in the proposal budget, justified in the budget justification, and must be specifically approved by NSF in the award notice.” This change comes largely from the fact that the NSF OIG effort audits found that it was an unacceptable practice to charge 100% salary in the summer months, when the effort was spread across both the summer and academic year.

The other significant change is for all proposals submitted on or after January 5, 2009, that request funding to support postdoctoral researchers must include, as a separate section within the 15-page Project Description, a description of the mentoring activities that will be provided for such individuals. Examples of mentoring activities include, but are not limited to: career counseling; training in preparation of grant proposals, publications and presentations; guidance on ways to improve teaching and mentoring skills; guidance on how to effectively collaborate with researchers from diverse backgrounds and disciplinary areas; and training in responsible professional practices. The proposed mentoring activities will be evaluated as part of the merit review process under the Foundation's broader impacts merit review criterion. Proposals that do not include a separate section on mentoring activities within the Project Description will be returned without review.

The full notice is copied below along with a link to the new Guide.
As always, should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact your ORPA Research Administrator.

Donna
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Donna L. Beyea
Senior Research Administrator
University of Rochester
Office of Research and Project Administration
509 Hylan Building - Box 270140
Rochester, NY  14627
Phone:  585-275-8037
Fax:  585-275-9492
email:  donna.beyea@rochester.edu

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Important Information about the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide

A new version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), NSF 09-1, has been posted on the NSF website and is available at: <http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf091>. The PAPPG is comprised of documents relating to the Foundation's proposal and award process and consists of:

(a) the Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) for guidance on the preparation and submission of proposals to NSF; and
(b) the Award & Administration Guide (AAG) to guide, manage, and monitor the award and administration of grants and cooperative agreements made by the Foundation.

This new version of the PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted on or after January 5, 2009. Given the significance of some of the changes contained in this revised version, we wanted to provide the community with appropriate advance notice.

The significant changes include:

• Entirely new guidance that addresses and implements the mentoring requirement of the America COMPETES Act;
• A major revision of NSF’s faculty salary reimbursement policy, to limit compensation for senior personnel to no more than two months of their regular salary in any one year from all NSF-funded grants;
• Debut of the Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) and EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) mechanisms, which replace the Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program; and
• Revision of the definition of co-PI for greater consistency with guidance issued by the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP).

While this version of the PAPPG becomes effective on January 5, 2009, in the interim, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 08-1 <http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf081>) continue to apply. We will ensure that the current version of the PAPPG remains on the NSF website, with a notation to proposers that specifies when the new PAPPG (including a link to the new Guide) will become effective. In addition, we plan to revise existing funding opportunities with due dates between January 5th and March 31st to alert proposers that significant changes have been made to NSF proposal preparation guidelines. Please direct any questions to the Policy Office in the Division of Institution & Award Support at policy@nsf.gov <mailto:policy@nsf.gov>, or (703) 292-8243.